


Aftermath - 6 Months Out - The Heatwave

by serendipityxxi



Series: The Void [14]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Broken a/c, F/M, Heatwave, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 00:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: There's a heatwave in Haven but for once they don't have to get up and put out volcanoes at 3a.m. so they just suffer like the rest of us mere mortals.





	Aftermath - 6 Months Out - The Heatwave

**Author's Note:**

> For all my peeps who are suffering through the heat this month

Nathan’s air conditioning breaks at the height of summer. It chugged valiantly along through the first few truly sweltering days, but it's faithful purr rattled to a stop at one o’clock in the morning on the second day of the worst heat wave Haven has seen in years. The sudden silence wakes him out of a dead sleep, and no amount of banging or swearing at it will fix it- though he gives it his best effort.

Cally Tyrol would cheerfully have come over to fix it but she’s five months pregnant and he doesn’t have the heart to call over there and wake her. The Walmart in Bangor is open 24 hours a day but that’s more than an hour away and he has an eight a.m. meeting with the Town Council. He settles for opening the windows and stripping down to his t shirt and boxers. He lays on top of the covers and waits for sleep, hoping the stagnant air will give up a breeze or two.

It’s hot. Really hot. Nathan would never wish his Trouble were back but if anything were going to make him wish that... lying on his sweat damp covers feeling sticky and miserable in the dark comes pretty close. A mosquito buzzes near his ear. Nathan slaps at himself and is left with a stinging ear and fingers but the mosquito lives to sing his song once more.

He tosses, he turns, he finally manages to drift off only to be awakened by Audrey’s irate demand. “Why’s it so hot in here?”

Nathan pries an eye open to glance at the clock. It’s only 1:30. She’s just getting home from her shift at the helpline.

“Sauna’s been relocated,” he grumbles at her.

She flops onto the bed face first and groans loudly into the pillows. “Can’t you do something?”

It’s not a whine because Audrey Parker doesn’t whine, but it comes damn close.

“Tried, already,” he assures her. As if he’d be just laying in a pool of his own sweat for fun.

“Maybe Duke can fix it,” she suggests hopefully as she kicks off her pajama pants, leaving her in just her panties and a tank top.

Nathan wants to be affronted she thinks Duke can fix the air conditioner when he can’t, but really Duke is the handiest of the three of them.

“Hope so,” he answers, and doesn’t complain when she drapes her sticky, hot arm across his stomach.

He’s grateful his Trouble’s turned off. Really.

Nathan feels like he’s barely closed his eyes when Duke’s soft curse wakes him up. A squint at the clock reveals it’s after three. Duke’s got a flashlight between his teeth and a screwdriver in his hand, poking at the guts of the A/C that he’s pried the cover off of.

“Think the coolant’s leaked out,” Nathan grumbles at him.

“Yeah,” Duke agrees a few seconds later, looking rueful. “I’ll buy a kit in the morning,” he promises.

Nathan doesn’t tell him he doesn’t have to, doesn’t say it’s his A/C he can buy his own kit or call a guy or anything like that, because Duke volunteered to fix it. He’s getting better at believing that he’s welcome at Nathan’s house and if he feels like he’s allowed to fix the A/C then Nathan isn’t going to tell him otherwise. He is. He’s welcome to fix the A/C and any other minor or major home repairs he’d like to undertake as long as he continues to live here, with them, right where Nathan wants him.

Duke drops the screw driver and clicks off the flashlight. Nathan watches him strip out of his work clothes, button down and undershirt pulled over his head, skinny jeans that Nathan swears he paints on kicked off. Duke gets into bed in his navy blue briefs and Nathan really shouldn’t appreciate the slide of those long, lean muscles against his, it’s way too hot to entertain any of _ those _kinds of thoughts, but if it wasn’t…

“Why are you putting yourself through this?” Duke asks, settling into bed next to Nathan.

“Didn’t break the damn thing,” Nathan grouses at Duke, though he knows full well what Duke means.

Duke sighs and explains in small words anyway. “Why don’t you turn on your Trouble?” he asks point blank.

Nathan grimaces and prays Duke can’t see him blush in the dark. He doesn’t have that kind of control over his Trouble yet but even if he did… “t’s cheating,” he finally answers.

Duke stops mid-yawn to give him an incredulous look.

“It’s cheating?” he demands.

“Gotta take the good with the bad,” Nathan explains.

Duke looks at Nathan, eyes wide and puzzled and then they soften and Nathan braces himself for a joke or a tease but Duke just kisses him, soft and quick, exactly as much as Nathan can bear in this heat.

“You’re kinda cute,” Duke tells him, lips twisted in a fond smile.

“He’s even cuter when he’s quiet so other people can sleep,” Audrey grumbles.

Duke laughs and kisses her hair too.

Audrey groans and pushes Duke off.

“S’too hot,” she grumbles.

They settle down after that. Nathan lays silent and still and listens to his partners’ breathing go back to deep and even. He can’t imagine how they managed to fall asleep, it’s hot, so damn hot, and their body heat just makes it worse. He feels like he’s roasting from the outside in. Sweat beads on his temple and rolls into his hair. Audrey rolls over and her warm breath gusts across his shoulder. Duke’s leg is pressed against his.

Nathan is going to combust.

There isn’t even a hint of a breeze. These old houses weren’t built for these warmer summer months, they were built to trap heat for the winters. 

Nathan gives it another ten minutes and then he carefully crawls out of the bed, not sure where he’s going but he’s got to get out of there.

The air conditioner in the Bronco is still working, he could put down the seat, turn it on and get cooler at least. He couldn’t sleep in there, though. The back porch is an option but if he’s being honest with himself he doesn’t feel comfortable sleeping outdoors since the Void. Nathan’s feet carry him down the hall and the cool tile of the kitchen floor startles his toes.

Nathan sucks in a breath at the sensation. He wiggles his toes and studies the floor for a long moment before deciding _ screw it. _ He tugs his t shirt over his head and lays down on the kitchen tiles. The cool ceramic against his back makes him give an involuntary shiver and he sighs in relief, laying his cheek against the floor. He purposely puts aside thoughts of _ when was the last time we mopped in here? _and the like. No. He closes his eyes and finally, finally feels his muscles loosen. His breaths come slow and deep. He can feel himself relaxing more firmly onto the tile with each long exhale. He can feel himself sinking further and further away from consciousness, drifting into the depths of sleep.

“That,” the voice startles Nathan awake, “is a great idea.”

Nathan opens his eyelids to slits, to find Duke in the doorway grinning down at him. He wants to groan, he wants to demand Duke shut up, he wants to send Duke back to bed so he can keep the cool tiles all to himself but he doesn’t do any of that. He grunts noncommittally and lays still and watches Duke stretch out a few inches to his right, hissing when his bare back presses into the cool tiles. Nathan doesn’t say a word because he wants this, he wants Duke at ease in his house, he wants Duke who is comfortable and willing to act like he lives here. Because he does. He _ lives here _. And that means he’s allowed to steal all the cold from Nathan’s tiles because they are one-third Duke’s tiles too.

Nathan’s almost fallen asleep again to the sound of Duke’s sleepy breathing when he hears Audrey’s feet come padding down the hall. He cracks a resigned eye open. So much for cooling off. She’s got her pillow under one arm, creases still pressed into her cheek, blonde hair sticking up at all angles. She scrubs at her eyes like a little kid and Nathan cannot help but smile at her. She smiles back, soft and tired and his heart turns over in his chest. He loves her. A lot.

Enough that he doesn’t complain when she fits herself into the few scant inches between himself and Duke, her warm little shoulder digging into his bicep.

“This isn’t usually how I end up sleeping on the kitchen floor,” she murmurs dryly a few moments later.

“We can try it the fun way once we get the A/C working again,” Duke promises very seriously, when Nathan was sure he’d already fallen asleep.

Audrey and Duke are quiet for a few long moments where they’re clearly waiting for him to say something.

“There’s a fun way?” he asks, because they need him to.

Audrey pats his hand comfortingly. “We’ll introduce it to you. Slowly,” she promises.

Nathan snorts.

They lapse into silence again after that. Nathan can hear crickets chirping outside. The tile under his cheek is getting warmer by the second. Audrey sighs and turns onto her side. “Worst slumber party location ever,” she complains.

“Don’t have to stay out here just ‘cause I’m here. You two want to go back to bed you can.”

“No!”

“No!”

They answer in unison, making him grin.

He falls asleep like that, a warmth in his chest that has nothing to do with the temperature.


End file.
